Oxford’s New “Vision Planning”
Calls for Community Participation!

A Community Design Advisory meeting was held Monday afternoon, May 14, in the Community Room of the Oxford Memorial Library. This was an introductory overview of three “Vision Planning” meetings scheduled over the next three months with the future of Oxford as their theme. The goal is to create an updated, realistic plan to guide future action that the local government and community can implement. This first informal gathering to begin to plan the process brought up several probing questions such as, “What would make you want to be here in the future?”

Members of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Center for Community Design Research attended the meeting as facilitators, along with Oxford leaders and several community members to begin a dialogue and arrange public meeting dates. The key is to reach concerned, caring members of the community to actively participate in the planning process, to share their knowledge and ideas with each other and the planning team.

The vision plan can be the first step in the preparation of a new Comprehensive Plan. Mayor Stark said, “It’s now close to forty years since the last plan was made and Oxford has done 23 out of 29 recommended items for the Town and Village. Oxford is overdue for a new plan.”

Maren C. King, the Director of the SUNY ESF, in the Center for Community Design Research (CCDR), was the “Vision Planning” speaker. Along with Maren were three ESF graduate students as assistants. Taking notes were Emily Handleman, Katherine Korba, and Christine Gentry. They are student facilitators who, while helping, also gain experience in the process of “Vision Planning.”

Community engagement is the key, and the ESF team helps to facilitate that process. To get the thought process started, Maren asked the group to think about the following questions, “What do we want the Oxford Community to be in five to ten years? What would make you want to be here in the future? What are “sacred places” in the Oxford community? (The “why” is important to understand.) What would you improve in Oxford if you could? How do we build on Oxford’s strengths?”

This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for – get your vision/ideas heard and make a difference in the future of Oxford. Come to the meetings! Three workshop meetings will be held. Tuesday, June 5; to uncover our shared values, and document Oxford’s assets, opportunities and concerns. Tuesday, July 10 (see the event PDF here); review and discussion of a draft vision, goals and planning diagrams. Tuesday, Aug. 7, the third workshop, will be to review and discuss strategies and design studies - both short and long term.

To accommodate different people’s schedules, two meetings will be held per date. One meeting at 2:30 p.m. (at the end of the school day) in the high school auditorium will endeavor to involve students as well as faculty and community members. A second meeting, to accommodate working schedules, will be at 7 p.m., possibly in the NYS Veterans’ Home. (Location confirmation to be announced.)
To read more notes from this meeting and discuss the process and provide feedback, visit the Discussion for this here.
To contact Maren King, call (315) 470-4721, or email ccdr@esf.edu, with any questions.
Read more about the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Center for Community Design Research online at http://www.esf.edu/ccdr/